BBM for Android passes 100 million downloads

BlackBerry has announced that BBM for Android has been downloaded over 100 million times from the Google Play Store. This milestone comes just 17 months after the launch of the app.

BBM is now showing in the 100 million-500 million installs category. BlackBerry also notes that this is just a part of their total, given their availability on iOS, Windows Phone, and of course, BlackBerry.

BlackBerry had this to say on their milestone:

BBM for Android has officially achieved a milestone on the Google Play Store: 100 million installs. That puts BBM in the top tier of messaging apps on Google Play, and we got there in a little over a year as we first posted BBM for Android in late October 2013. We have 3.7 million reviews, and just shy of 2.4 million of them are five stars.

BBM recently added some major new features. These include Custom PINs, which allow you to create your own BBM PIN for a small monthly fee. Also added was support for Android Wear, letting you view notifications and even reply to messages, all from your wrist.

If you're not one of the 100 million, you can download BBM for Android from the Google Play Store now.

Reader comments

BBM for Android passes 100 million downloads

Of my contacts who use third party messaging apps, the majority use BBM, followed by FB Messenger, then SMS, and then WhatsApp. Every demographic/grouping of people will be different and so what confuses me is why someone would waste their energy to bash a product that they don't even use?

This goes for any product that has multiple brands. They all have their strengths, they all have their weaknesses, you chose the product which best suits yourself; must you bash every other product to make yours sound superior? This is just elitism. Public opinion doesn't beget the "best". What's best for you is what's best for you. Stop with the hate, it's childish.

Personally, I have an iPhone 5S, Galaxy Note 3, and Z10. They are all great in their own respect. This fear that people have of not being part of the popular crowd is idiotic.

You should practice what you preach. If I go to Crackberry, you and your cohorts are constantly bashing not only Android and iOS, but their users as well. Each OS has haters, don't sit here and pretend that Blackberry users don't hate on other OS's products and users. You should be posting this on Crackberry, as well, if you truly mean what you say and you're not just here to fuel the flames.

I have posted about this subject on countless other topics on Crackberry as well as iMore. But I post only when I feel it necessary, not everywhere all the time, I don't live in the comments section.

The article in which this comment section is attached to is about how one company's messaging app has reached a milestone in downloads in another market space, which is a cause for congratulations, not for beratement and ridicule. BBM was once the go to messaging application and so the fact that it is cross platform now is a good thing. Yes there are other messaging apps, yes they all borrow aspects from each other, yes they have their own user base, so which one is the best? Does it matter? Not really.
All my friends use different messaging apps and as such I use multiple messaging apps. People will use what they like, and if you like them, then you'll use what they use and they'll do the same, it's called compromise. Hating on ridiculousness is a waste of time and energy.

Given the questions right after BBM's release about how many of the reviews (and downloads) were legitimate, I would say some skeptical commentary and even ridicule on this 'milestone' is far from out of line.

So... Poop jokes?
In all seriousness though, it's seemingly impossible to have a legitimate gripe against BB or BBM (or most tech companies, but they're the relevant subject). If you dislike a product, you're a hater or a troll, end of story.

All the hate thats here cracks me up. Just becasue you or the people you know don't use it does not mean anything. BBM is used much and often. I really wish AC would only post Android related content here. This shit get old when trying to read comments that can be informative for some.

There are a number of reasons people hate on BB. One is that a lot of former users are bitternthe company stopped innovating and told users that what they wanted (cameras, color multi touch screens) didn't matter. Another is the huge number if fake reviews that popped up on Play, which many suspect was done by BB themselves to pad numbers and reviews of what was definitely a sub par app. Any developer would get hated on for that, and deservedly so. A third factor is that BB was (and arguably still is) implicitly encouraging the pirating of apps. Personally I find BB's (and their fanboys) perpetual crowing about security after giving server access and encryption keys to governments (particularly foreign governments) to be particularly egregious.

This guy just wasted everyone's time typing a whole lot of rubbish. The only reason people like you hate BlackBerry is cos you're so angry that your years of preaching doom and death never came to pass. When bbm was released you were all over this site wishing it will fail and now you're mad again cos it hasn't and is actually growing Lol.

Like seriously.. do you really walk down the street in your daily life and just hang around waiting for a BlackBerry user to cross your path so you can let him know how bad his phone is or you meet anyone using bbm then begin to preach your hate again? I can't believe you actually are daft enough to list three so called reasons why people hate BlackBerry. It's all in your mind dude and nobody cares.

I think you need a BlackBerry so at least the best keyboard on the market can auto suggest sensible things for you to type.. or flick.. take your pick.

Riiight... I'm making stuff up. Except for the part about giving away the encryption. Oh, and the fake reviews. And BB falling behind in features and innovation. And the App pirating. But yeah, you nailed it, I made all the other parts up in my effort to address his comment. Everyone actually dislikes BB because of keyboard envy.

Google would be foolish to take security advice from BB. BB gave their encryption keys and access to their servers to the Indian government. BB might be the least secure platform out there as a consequence.

I really wish I knew someone that uses Hangouts. Like seriously.. if you ask anyone in the UK to contact you on Hangouts they look at you like.. what the fuck is hangouts mate??? Lol. As for WhatsApp.. I get like 2 or so people that message me on it but it's only two side chicks and one of my mates on an iPhone. Everybody else, I know uses BBM, SMS or FB Messenger.

I never use WhatsApp primarily because I don't give out my phone number. I do use BBM to chat with some people, along with Hangouts and several other chat apps. BBM works well, although the app has become a little spammy and the emoji is a little cartoonish for my liking.

You can minus my download as I uninstalled it about 3 weeks after it was released on Android. RIM really dropped the ball on this. I came to Android from Blackberry in 2011. In 2011 BBM was still the superior messaging experience compared to everything else available at the time. RIM chose to keep it locked-in to only Blackberry, all the while all their competitors were building better and better cross platform products that were reaching more users. I really wanted it on Android but by the time it came out no one I knew used it anymore, nor were willing to install yet another messaging app. BBM is still focused on catching up to the rest of its competitors. If they don't innovate something that turns the messaging space on its head I don't see them returning to their former glory.

Hangouts is getting better.. Slowly.. The most recent updates have really sped it up.. It's also better than others for desktop because it works on any computer without installing things ( and if you want an "app" there is the chrome extension that essentially runs as its own standalone hangouts app

Hangouts on iOS is superior to the Android version. It's getting slowly better, on its home turf while abroad its superior. Last time I checked, I read somewhere that hangouts is used more on iOS than on Android devices which says allot

If they released this year's ago, it would be the go to messenger app instead of what's app. But since what's app works so well and nearly everyone I know use it (less a few iPhone users) it's hard to justify switching for the sake of switching.

I wonder why they don't sell Android phones. They could be the go-to phone if you want a physical keyboard. I am sure they would sell more than they are selling now. They should at least try it out once.

They'd have to build their custom Android OS which could take time and resources they don't have since they've invested so much into keeping their own OS alive. They also would be competing with the Black Phone which would already be way ahead of the game in encryption and enterprising using Android.